2007-12-31 - Los Angeles, CA - Rectangle

Floating large rectangle near Highland Park/Pasadena CA

I was in my car traveling North on Figueroa St. in Highland Park, Los Angeles. I will have to return to see what the cross street was, but I had passed 60th St. It was about 4PM, perhaps a little after. Looking through my windshield, on the right side of the street, I could see the neighborhood buildings and beyond them, the hills South of Pasadena dotted with houses, across the LA River, not very far away at all.

In between, I spotted a rectangular object in the air. It was a flat gray. I could tell that it was slowly moving southward, perhaps above the river, which winds with the 110 freeway but more likely, above the hills.

I’ll state right now that I know it wasn’t a billboard, although it was positioned in a manner a billboard would be (long side down) and was at least the size of a billboard. The difference being this object was floating and moving through mid air.

I’ll also state that it wasn’t a blimp and I had already seen the Goodyear blimp earlier in the day, around the Pasadena area, since tomorrow is the Rose Bowl Parade. That was my first thought, that this was a promo for the Bowl and a plane was towing it, even though a plane at that low an altitude in that area would be a freak flight plan.

My “mission” then became to see this thing and the plane that might be towing it together, but I’d have to see it in enough open space as I was getting my view blocked by buildings and trees as I drove. The next chance revealed the rectangle still moving with no plane to be seen anywhere. Now I thought it might be a balloon and I tried to get a good look at it, replacing my sunglasses with my glasses.

There seemed to be a texture to it like a chain-link fence pattern. Also there seemed to be 3 segments to it with 2 vertical lines from top to bottom. So it looked like left side, middle, right side, all about equal width. There may have been a circular shape in the middle one. No sound from it that I could hear. No lights or glows.

It still continued to move behind things that blocked my view so I tried again to get a better view and was frustrated by slow moving traffic. I’ll state it was moving unlike a loose balloon might. It was heading in an edge-first, sideways manner, as if the bottom edge was on a track. I could also tell by the edge it was not very “thick”, that is I wasn’t looking at one end of a house-like frame. It was much more flattened like a billboard.

It occurred to me to get to a spot where I could try to photograph it with my cell phone. I took out my phone and prepared it, still trying to keep the shape in sight. I approached an intersection and saw it again. This time it seemed to be picking up speed as if going around a curve and I stuck my arm out the window of my car and tried to snap a picture above the roof of my car.

At the intersection I realized I could go down the street toward the freeway and at that point, my view would be unblocked. I made the turn and raced down passed the cross streets, hopefully on an intercept course, as that was the very direction it was headed. It took anywhere from 15 to 30 seconds to get there without seeing the rectangle (blocked by neighborhood houses).

When I reached the end of the street with its open view of everywhere around, hoping to see a larger version of the rectangle or maybe even some explanation, it was totally gone from view. I looked in every direction. Nothing but everything as it usually is in broad daylight.

Possibly, I thought, it could have turned and descended on the other side of the hill ridge (it seemed to be low enough). Or, if it had simply dropped straight down, the trees would immediately block it from sight.

I stopped my car and then inched it along each block. Finally, I gave up and looked at the camera photo. The shot doesn’t show it as it may have been pointed away slightly and I tried a vertical shot (done again I’d have held it sideways or even chosen video capture and turned it to get the best coverage). The shot is oddly over exposed but it may have been the time of day.

I also immediately turned down the way I had come up Figueroa and retraced the road from the last 5 minutes, looking for any billboards I could have mistaken for it, etc. I saw nothing like it.

If I hear of any explanation of it, fine. I just would like to know what it was. I won’t believe it if someone says it was pulled by something…there wasn’t anything in front or above. Also, anything loose that size near a highway and homes is hazardous.

I'll try to send along some illustrations.